Sarah Palin’s defamation case against New York Times thrown out
Judge tosses the former vice-presidential candidate’s case while allowing the jury to continue deliberations
Sarah Palin’s lawsuit accusing the New York Times of defaming her by incorrectly linking her to a mass murder was thrown out on Monday.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said he will order the dismissal of the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate’s lawsuit, but in an unusual twist, he will enter his order after the jury finishes its own deliberations.
“I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times but having said that, that’s not the issue before this court,” Rakoff said in court on Monday. “The law here sets a very high standard [for actual malice]. The court finds that that standard has not been met.”
Rakoff said he expected Palin to appeal, and that the appeals court “would greatly benefit from knowing how the jury would decide it”.
The judge’s order effectively pre-empted a possible jury verdict to the contrary, in a case seen as a test of longstanding protections for American media.
The nine jurors – five women and four men – began deliberating on Friday and resumed their work on Monday. They are not being told about the judge’s ruling, and will continue deliberations.
Palin, 58, had sued the newspaper – one of America’s most prominent media organizations – and its former editorial page editor James Bennet, arguing that a 2017 editorial incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting six years earlier that wounded the Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
(the guardian)
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